Even the best formula can use a quick shake-up.
That's the thinking behind Arena of the Gods, a new mode in Xbox Game Studios and World Edge's Age of Mythology: Retold. Arena of the Gods changes up how the game plays through wild modifiers and optional bonuses, making it a different experience even as familiar armies of humans and myth units clash.
Ahead of its recent release, I had the chance to go hands-on with Arena of the Gods, testing the different scenarios and seeing how World's Edge and its partners are shaking up the game's strategy formula. Overall, it's a solid addition to one of my favorite games of the year, made even better by the fact that it's entirely free.
New abilities and strategies that are constantly changing
Arena of the Gods is a new mode that's primarily geared towards single-player play, though you can also go through it in co-op with a friend. You're put through 35 skirmish scenarios, not unlike a match-up you'd possibly encounter playing the multiplayer mode, though naturally you're pitted against AI opponents.
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Where Arena of the Gods primarily differs is in its unique modifiers. Each skirmish has World Twists, which radically change how the game is played with positive and negative effects. Heroes might not cost any Favor, or you might be able to place a self-building Titan Gate from the start of the game, but it could come at the cost of villagers being far slower to gather resources. You can grab instant armies that are frozen across the battlefield, but they're only unfreezable once you meet requirements like having 5000 of one particular resource in the bank.
As you play, you'll also earn different bonuses, letting you pick and choose up to three additional modifiers for your forces. Maybe you want human soldiers to deal more damage, or maybe instead you'd prefer Myth units to have extra health? Those options and many more are available to earn as you progress through the various missions.
It would've been easy for these modifiers to feel too unimportant or trivial, but I found myself changing up how I approached some battles, even using units and choosing god combinations I usually eschew.
While Arena of the Gods is a great experience, it's important that you not make one key mistake: Don't lower the difficulty. Even if you're not the most skilled real-time strategy player, Arena of the Gods doesn't provide a challenge at all below the "Hard" difficulty setting. In fact, it's actually set to Hard by default, so just don't adjust that (or if you do, go higher) and you'll have a great time.
Overall, I've been happy to have an excuse to spend even more time throwing around God powers and commanding mythical forces in Age of Mythology: Retold, a game that I already loved. Truthfully, Arena of the Gods would've been great even as a (small) paid DLC, but as a free addition, it's downright excellent.
I'm happy to see World's Edge and Xbox supporting the game like this, and I'm looking forward to spending even more time in-game when the Chinese faction arrives. It's currently slated to launch later this year, but with only a few weeks remaining in 2024, we'll have to wait and see how things pan out.
Arena of the Gods is now available in Age of Mythology: Retold, which itself is currently available on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC. Like all Xbox first-party games, it's included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
